Ninedays Blog

I was excited to see the Chumby control panel updates on my $175 alarm clock the other night I spent an extra 30 minutes (during which I should have been falling asleep) playing with it and checking out new features.

Improved Alarm Clock

The improvements to the alarm clock functionality are great. Now I can set custom alarms and set them for specific days, weekdays, weekend etc.
This is perfect for me, cause most of the time 2 alarms just doesn't cut it for me.

It's also great to see that I can now customize the noise my alarm clock makes. I had to constantly rotate between the three default sounds so I would stop ignoring the same one every morning when I attempted to wake up. Not only can I customize the noise, but I can also choose internet radio stations through the new built in SHOUTcast and Radio Free Chumby internet radio services.

I also really like that I can customize my alarms to decide what it does after it goes off. It can turn sleep mode on or off, go to a channel, turn on music. Most of mine are set to go back to sleep mode (see where the multiple alarm thing is critical for me now?)

More Music Options

After I discovered the changes to the alarm, I ventured into the rarely used (by me) music area, and low and behold I now have access to plenty of new options:

• iPod
• Internet Radio (SHOUTcast and Radio Free Chumby)
• Streaming music through SlimServer, or other MP3, M3U, Ogg or PLS stream
• Music from a USB drive
• Mediafly Podcasts

I also really like the easily accessible volume control too.

Better Touch Sensitivity

I've had problems with the buttons on the control panel before and it seems as though someone over at Chumby is psychic and fixed that problem just for me cause now the buttons are easier to press and provide great feedback with a thicker green outline.

Cause the little things really do matter the most.

Widget Updates

I've also noticed a number of my favorite widgets have gotten some updates. Mainly the Flickr Photo Viewer and I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER? who both now have the "flick" functionality built into them where with the swipe of your finger you can move back and forth between the images (think iPhone cool kind-of flick.)

I've also had a problem with my Chumby where when I turn it on to put it into night mode to use the alarm clock after about 45 minutes it would need to re-connect to the wifi and would light up my room to do so. Looks like that bug has been fixed.

Yay Chumby updates!